Yes
75% (251)

No
25% (83)

334 total votes.

Hours before the county’s top executive announced that he would be stepping down in four months, officials had already determined a way for the Board of Supervisors to appoint his successor the same afternoon.

The public was unaware the position of administrator for a $5 billion budget and 15,000 public employees would come open — much less that it would be filled the same day.

Walt Ekard, the county’s chief administrative officer, announced his pending departure at 2 p.m. Wednesday, and the board had settled on a replacement by 6 p.m.

Supervisors unanimously decided Ekard would be replaced by his longtime assistant, Helen Robbins-Meyer, in a closed-door meeting — a matter that was not on the agenda posted by law 72 hours before the board gathered.

Officials say the smooth transition based on years of solid succession planning is emblematic of a well-run operation, which Ekard and his colleagues call the finest local government in America.

“You rarely see us go outside to hire an executive because we grow them,” Ekard said Wednesday. “Our culture is different than most governments and it’s hard for people to come in from the outside – from the private sector or the public sector – and be successful, or at least not have a big learning curve.”

The seamless transition is indicative of how the county does business — but in a troubling way, said Ian Trowbridge, a longtime civic activist and chairman of San Diegans for Open Government.

On Thursday, he said the group is preparing a letter contending officials violated provisions of the state’s open meetings law, known as the Ralph M. Brown Act, which is in place so the public can meaningfully participate in important government decisions.

According to Trowbridge, the board took an action that was not on the public agenda, without demonstrating the urgency required to justify such a departure.

“They essentially ignored the Brown Act instead of using a very simple solution,” Trowbridge said. “They quite obviously could have called a special meeting and only needed 24 hours notice and done it on Thursday.”

Trowbridge’s group last month sued the supervisors regarding their approval of $1.5 million in funding to help private landowners appeal decisions enacted last August under the county’s general plan for land use. The suit alleges inadequate public notice of the decision.

Another open-government advocacy group, Californians Aware, raised issues about the county’s public notice practices involving a separate planning issue in December. The county held a revote with more public notice, without admitting any flaws in the December action.

Supervisors last month re-affirmed their commitment to the Brown Act.

In the case of Ekard’s replacement, the supervisors declared normal meeting notices were not required because their immediate action was necessary “to ensure continuity of county operations.”

A key point, according to Deborah McCarthy, an assistant county counsel, was that the need for action came to the attention of the board after the agenda was posted.

“It’s a lawful exemption under the Brown Act for closed session,” McCarthy said.